"While some Republicans have voiced support for the endowments, the arts endowment in particular has been a target of conservatives for decades.
After political battles over the endowments in the late 1980s and 1990s, both agencies created programs and provided grants to more artists and scholars in politically conservative parts of the country, like a rural arts initiative that benefited states like Alabama and North Dakota. Yet endowment money still flowed strongly to liberal-leaning states and cities: New York City arts groups are the largest recipient of federal arts grants.
Some advocates for the arts endowment, which doles out far less money as a percentage than many other governments around the world, have said that its importance is less about the money and more about the message that it sends about the importance of culture in the United States.
PEN America, an advocacy group made up of literary figures, has been circulating a petition in an effort to save the endowments that has already amassed 200,000 signatures, including prominent names such as Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood."I'm not surprised. The proposed cuts come from a Republican president whose idea of culture is judging Miss Teen and Miss Universe pageants, building casinos that look like a mausoleum in Agra, India, and living in a golden tower that would make Louis XIV embarrassed because of its overwrought, gauche bad taste.So here's Trump's America: Take away health care for millions of middle class and poor Americans; eliminate the endowments for the arts; bar Muslims from entering the country, all while flying every weekend to West Palm Beach, Florida, for a vacation, at a cost to the American taxpayers of $3 million a pop, and then charge his weekend jaunts at Trump's playground for the rich to the American taxpayer. Meanwhile, Melania Antoinette and her son are ensconced in Trump Tower in Manhattan, also at taxpayers' expense.It's good to be the king, eh Donnie?UPDATE:Charlie Pierce at Esquire:

Every year, during the run-up to Halloween, when Jim DeMint goes to Hell's mega-mall and sits on Satan's lap, he has a list of things he wants for the holiday. The parents of the assembled demons and imps behind him in line often get frustrated because the list is so long. On Thursday, the Trump Administration released its proposed national budget. It's been a long time coming, but DeMint and the rest of the greasy barbarians at Heritage finally got most of what they asked for.
This proposed budget isn't extreme. Reagan's proposed budget in 1981 was extreme. This budget is short-sighted, cruel to the point of being sadistic, stupid to the point of pure philistinism, and shot through with the absolute and fundamentalist religious conviction that the only true functions of government are the ones that involve guns, and that the only true purpose of government is to serve the rich.

[skip]

Who in the hell zeroes out Meals on Wheels?

Who decides that a program that spends $3 million to help volunteers feed the elderly and infirm in their communities is something that the country can no longer afford? Who are the men in the meetings who make this kind of call? What are their names? Trot them out so the country knows who they are. C'mon, David Brooks, find out who they are and explain why National Greatness Conservatism has a problem with starving elderly shut-ins. The National Endowment For The Arts? The National Endowment For The Humanities? The Corporation For Public Broadcasting?
Who in the hell zeroes out the NEA, or the NEH, or the CPB? Who decides that rural museums, and Ken Burns, and Antiques Roadshow are too elitist for a country full of righteous bumpkins? I'll tell you who does. Newt Gingrich does, that's who, and 23 years ago Newt Gingrich was the superstar of the conservative movement, the intellectual anchor of the modern Right, until, of course, he became a public embarrassment. You know who else does? George Effing Will, just today, that's who. These programs did not become targets last November.

WHO IN THE HELL ZEROES OUT MEALS ON WHEELS?

I'll tell you who, Charlie. The sort of people who believe America is a hellhole and who are doing their damndest to make it so:

28 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Trump's numbers are tanking again, even Fox News has him losing 5 points, his approval number is 40%. Unheard of for a new president of the US, but in Trump's case he's so hated by so many it's not surprising.

It costs people $1.00 a day to provide, in many cases, kids with safe quality programming that is not stuffed with endless entreaties to buy sugar infused goodies stuffed in a box, sure to contribute to a life time of obesity.

Which no one will be able to treat because it will be a pre existing condition or they won't be able to afford coverage.

We'll see how this plays out now that Trump has admitted this is gonna be hard on his voters.

But who knows, maybe they'll vote against their interests again like they did with Trump and health care... all in the name of liberty.

"Does the party of Bob Dole really want to decimate food aid overseas? Wasn’t it President Gerald Ford who championed Community Development Block Grants? Even Ronald Reagan found money for fuel assistance for the poor, why none now? And after years of espousing welfare-to-work, why are Republicans being asked again to cut job training funds?"

If a rural community needs a Federal grant to fund a drama group or an orchestra then they shouldn't have them in the first place.Nothing in the Constitution says we should have nice things.The arts should be available to those who can afford them as the market allows.

All that PBS does is fund that commie radio. You should be listening to Rush like a real American. That way you'll understand why we need to cut off meals to shut in seniors so they'll get out and get jobs.

Get a charge out of our fat slob preznit endorsing a budget that cuts Meals on Wheels and feels no shame.He's afraid that if the seniors eat there won't be enough for him, the fat s--t.

Who cuts Meals on Wheels? Why our religious right brethren. It's their version of the works of mercy.Totally freaking disgusting. I can hear the braying on the mothership now.

Ducky, the only good thing about this disastrous presidency is that he's at 40% approval, and may sink further. If the American people are not with him, he won't get much done.

How people who call themselves "Christians" can support this man is still a mystery, unless one understands that those "Christians" use that name as window dressing. No real Christian would EVER condone kicking the old, the sick, the young, and the vulnerable to the gutter, as Trump's budget does.

Also, Trump is still a lying liar. No evidence on his made-up story about Mr. Obama wire tapping his golden tower. Trump has lost all credibility. No one will believe anything he lets out of his lying maw. Ever.

Anon @1:46 Trump's losing any political capital he thought he had. The American people do not like this conman. And those "forgotten Americans" he conned will be the ones who'll turn on him the fastest.

Deanter, maybe funding can be saved is we let Preznit Trump into the dressing rooms of teenage girls who are half naked. We know that this classless slimebag bragged about doing this as the promoter of beauty pageants. Can anyone understand what sort of people could possibly vote for a degenerate like Trump? I'm embarrassed to be living in the same country with them!

Dave, don't ever forget that Trump won because Hillary had unsecured emails. Are we lucky we have this conman?

Ducky, Trump said he was for the "forgotten Americans." Who are more forgotten than elderly people who live alone and need help with meals? Trump's name will be on this hideous budget that throws the "forgotten Americans" to the gutter, while he enjoys his multi-million dollar golfing weekends with Melania Antoinette at Mar-a-Lago. He bills the US for his stays at his own resort and pockets the millions. Nice con, innit?

Trump’s budget eliminates the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps a limited number of poor people pay their heating and cooling bills.“Compared to other income support programs that serve similar populations, LIHEAP is a lower-impact program and is unable to demonstrate strong performance outcomes,” the Trump budget says.

I guess being warm in winter is low impact. Idiots.

Trump’s budget saves $35 million by closing the Section 4 Capacity Building for Community Development and Affordable Housing program. This is money that goes to Habitat for Humanity and other charities that build and refurbish houses for poor people.

It would also slash funds for the National Institutes of Health by $6 billion. That would put the NIH funding level at a 15-year low. .

I remember when the right was in hysterics over the presence of Ebola. In fairly short order it was under control, a vaccine was being tested and the NIH was critical to both that effort and reassuring a jittery public. I figure even the right would consider it money well spent. Idiots.

So far no indication of how he's going to skim from food stamps to pay the defense contractors but with the department of agriculture being cut 20% you know its coming.I'll bet a hunk of the 15% cut to Education comes out of school meals.Preznit Bimbo really gets upset if people have any reasonable nutrition. I don't know what the cuts at state will mean to famine relief for places like Yemen. They'll have to be content with increased funding of Saudi bombing runs.

So if you're a defense contractor or hedge fund manager be happy. Otherwise, screw you.

Using Charlie's figure of $3M to MoW, I did some math. It takes less than 3 weeks to burn through $3M keeping Melania and Baron holed up in The Tower while Leader collects rent from the Secret Service. $3M is also the cost to tax payers for a weekend at Mar a Lago. Conservative values on display.

Remember the good old days when playing golf practically disqualified someone from being president? Orange, OK. Black, go back to caddying.

Somebody better put our friends in the mainstream media on suicide watch. Despite their best efforts to take down President Trump (we’re looking at you Rachel Maddow), the man in the White House is starting to rally Americans around his agenda.

A brand new Morning Consult Poll shows that a majority of Americans approve of the job President Trump is doing – a rating of 52%.

Craig, There's no consistency in the Gooper playbook when it comes to presidents and golf and presidents and lavish life styles.

The Goopers were relentless in their criticisms about the Obama family and their vacations, but are hypocritically silent on the disgusting amount of money Lord Dampnut and his family charges the American taxpayers for his and Melania Antoinette's lifestyle.

We have known all along that trump is a successful conman and liar. The poor schlubs who voted for him are getting hit over their heads with that reality.

We Liberals should, like Bernie did in coal country, embrace these people and welcome them into the Reality Party and embrace them as fellow Americans who will do all we can to see that trump does not succeed in turning American into Somalia with nukes.

Shaw, I believe you are wrong about the reason for -H- to get trumped was obamacare. The unsecured emails just shows she was incompetent but the lack of leadership and obamacare by the administration which she was part of caused her massive defeat.

The DJT election shows that we need good candidates from both parties to run. In this election we got the best of the worst.

I actually like many of the shows on PBS and would hate to see them go away. Their national news is tops and many of their mini series are great. Most of the shows on PBS are private funded so it will continue.

As to public funding the arts, that should be a private venture. I am sure there are enough hollywood elite's that will donate the outrages fortunes to help the cause.

I am waiting for FLOTUS to take a trip with 40 of her closest friends on our dime and watch the left go off the deep end. It will be a bigger spectacle that michelles trips because the MSM will be all over it.

CLAIMPresident Donald Trump has announced budget cuts that would end the Meals on Wheels program.

RATING: MIXTURE true and false

WHAT'S TRUEThe Trump administration released a blueprint budget that would eliminate funding for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, which provides partial funding for local Meals on Wheels groups.

WHAT'S FALSEThe national Meals on Wheels office receives the bulk of its funding from sources other than the CDBG; the effect of CBDG cuts on local Meals on Wheels groups is uncertain.

"The effects of the CBDG cuts on local Meals on Wheels groups IS UNCERTAIN."

skudrunner wrote: "Shaw, I believe you are wrong about the reason for -H- to get trumped was obamacare."

I never claimed that. Where did you get that idea from?

skudrunner: "The unsecured emails just shows she was incompetent but the lack of leadership and obamacare by the administration which she was part of caused her massive defeat."

Hillary's defeat was not "massive." Trump won a slight E.C. victory, and Hillary won the popular vote by THREE MILLION VOTES. The LARGEST popular vote margin in American history.

Trump won by a massively small margine. And he has only 40% of the voting public on his side.

IOW, a MASSIVE number of Americans (and people all over the planet) dislike him with the intensity of a thousand suns. And he will forever be associated with the Republican Party to their everlasting shame.

skud: "I am waiting for FLOTUS to take a trip with 40 of her closest friends on our dime and watch the left go off the deep end. It will be a bigger spectacle that michelles trips because the MSM will be all over it."

First off, that didn't happen. Second, it's costing the American taxpayers $300 THOUSAND A DA to keep Melania and Barron in their Golden Tower, (total that up starting Jan. 20 until her son is out of school in June -- $300 THOUSAND A DAY. That makes Michelle Obama look like a piker.) not to mention the cost of flying the FLOTUS to the home she doesn't live in, the White House, when the Trumpistas need a photo-op, or flying FLOTUS to her Mar-a-Lago mansion for a vacation weekend after spending an exhausting week in her Golden Tower trying on designer clothes and diamond jewelry.

On 15 March 2017, the web site Occupy Democrats published an article about a blueprint budget released by the Trump administration under the sensationalized title “Trump Just Announced Plan to End ‘Meals on Wheels’ for Seniors.” Although the text of the article was largely accurate, the baited headline was misleading and many readers into believing that President Trump had specifically proposed to eliminate Meals on Wheels, a service that delivers meals to individuals at home (primarily seniors) who are unable to purchase or prepare meals for themselves.

However, President Trump’s blueprint budget does not mention or target Meals on Wheels, nor would the adoption of that budget spell the end of Meals on Wheels. Rather, the blueprint contained a section proposing the elimination of funding for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program:

CNN: The preliminary outline for President Donald Trump's 2018 budget could slash some funding for a program that provides meals for older, impoverished Americans.

The budget blueprint suggests cutting funds for the Department of Housing and Urban Development by about $6.2 billion, a 13.2% decrease from its 2017 funding level.Here's what Trump wants cut

Almost half of those savings will come by eliminating the $3 billion Community Development Block Grant program, which provides money for a variety of community development and anti-poverty programs, including Meals on Wheels.

"The federal government has spent over $150 billion on this block grant since its inception in 1974, but the program is not well-targeted to the poorest populations and has not demonstrated results," the budget blueprint says.

In addition to painting the program as ineffective, the blueprint says the 2018 budget seeks to "devolve community and economic development activities to the state and local level."Though the blueprint doesn't contain enough detail to know for certain how local Meals on Wheels programs will be affected, spokeswoman Jenny Bertolette said, "It is difficult to imagine a scenario in which they will not be significantly and negatively impacted if the President's budget were enacted."